Youth Committee Over 10%: 'Youth-Friendly Committees' Expanded from 27 to 150... Phased Appointments by 2024
On the 18th, MOU Signed with Korean Policy Association and Korean Administration Association... Collaboration with Expert Institutions for Talent Discovery
[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government, having designated more than half of all city committees?150 in total?as ‘Youth-Friendly Committees’ to incorporate the perspectives of youth (aged 19?39) across city administration, is now launching efforts to discover youth members to participate in these committees.
On the 19th, Seoul announced that it will expand cooperation with various specialized institutions in administration and policy to actively identify and secure talented young professionals. The previous day, Kim Ui-seung, Seoul’s First Deputy Mayor for Administration, signed memorandums of understanding with the Korean Association for Policy Studies and the Korean Association for Public Administration, respectively.
According to the agreements, each association will cooperate to have their members register in the ‘Seoul Future Talent Database,’ which serves as a pool of young talent for Seoul. Seoul will support the recommended young talents from each association to serve as committee members, ensuring that youth voices are reflected in city policies.
Seoul plans to continue signing MOUs with professional associations, societies, and organizations to secure young talent. Additionally, the budget for next year will be doubled compared to this year’s 115 million KRW to enhance education and activity support for youth talent policy capabilities and to secure customized talent for each committee.
Seoul aims to secure diverse young professionals with expertise in policy, administration, and other fields, and to involve them in the ‘Youth-Friendly Committees’ to guarantee youth participation in policymaking, realizing a ‘Youth Seoul.’ By the second half of this year, at least 10% of the appointed members in 71 out of the 150 Youth-Friendly Committees will be youth. Considering the typical 2?3 year term of committee members, Seoul plans to sequentially achieve a minimum 10% youth member ratio in all Youth-Friendly Committees by 2024.
In particular, Seoul will proactively discover young individuals with the expertise required by each committee through cooperation with human resource development (HRD) specialized institutions. Kim Ui-seung, Seoul’s First Deputy Mayor for Administration, stated, “Through this MOU, we expect expanded participation of young professionals with expertise in policy and administration in city governance. Starting with this agreement, Seoul will broaden cooperation with specialized institutions in various fields to discover and nurture young talent, and will surely achieve the goal of appointing 10% youth members in the ‘Youth-Friendly Committees’ by 2024, thereby realizing ‘Youth Seoul.’”
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